The 2016 Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP), conducted by Interact for Health and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, has tracked Kentucky adults’ views about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) since it became law in 2010.
When KHIP 2016 was conducted, 90 percent of Kentucky adults reported that they were insured. Of these, 2 in 10 (19 percent) reported being concerned about losing coverage in the next 12 months.
“Responses differed by self-reported health status,” says Kate Keller, Vice President, System Strategies, Interact for Health. “Insured Kentucky adults reporting fair or poor health were more likely to be concerned about losing coverage than those reporting good and excellent or very good health.”
Insured Northern Kentuckians were more likely to say they were not concerned about losing their coverage (85 percent versus 80 percent statewide).
From 2013 to 2016 more than 600,000 adults and children in Kentucky enrolled in Medicaid and the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP) under the ACA.
They enrolled both through kynect, the Kentucky-based online marketplace at kynect.ky.gov, and through kynectors, people who helped applicants in person. Since Nov. 1, 2016, eligible Kentuckians enroll in health plans on the federal marketplace at www.healthcare.gov or on www.benefind.ky.gov for Medicaid and KCHIP.
KHIP 2016 was conducted in the weeks before the presidential election and asked Kentucky adults about experiences with and opinions about the ACA.
“These surveys help us determine the issues Kentuckians are facing and how to best focus our efforts to serve their needs,” says O’dell M. Owens, M.D., M.P.H., President/CEO of Interact for Health. “The results of these particular questions show us that many Kentuckians are concerned about how potential changes in the law might affect their ability to maintain health coverage for their families.”
Equal numbers report positive, negative impact from ACA
Five in 10 Kentucky adults (51 percent) reported that the ACA had not had an effect on their families. More than 2 in 10 reported either a positive impact (23 percent) or a negative impact (23 percent). This is unchanged from 2015. Northern Kentucky adults were less likely to say the ACA has had a positive impact (17 percent versus 23 percent statewide).
Interact for Health has been asking this question since 2013, and the long trend line shows that statewide, the ACA has had an impact on an increasing portion of the population. The percent of adults reporting that the ACA has had a positive effect on them or their family has increased since 2013.
Opinions about ACA unchanged from 2015
The 2016 KHIP found that opinions about the ACA were stable compared with 2015. A similar percentage of Kentucky adults reported unfavorable (46 percent) and favorable opinions (40 percent) in both years. The views in Kentucky were similar to national views of the health care law during this time period. Northern Kentuckians were less likely to have a favorable opinion of the ACA (34 percent versus 40 percent statewide).
More information about Kentuckians’ opinions of the Affordable Care Act, and other topics, is available at www.interactforhealth.org/kentucky-health-issues-poll.
The 2016 Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP) is funded by Interact for Health and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. KHIP was conducted Sept. 11-Oct. 19, 2016, by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati. A random sample of 1,580 adults from throughout Kentucky was interviewed by telephone. This included 827 landline interviews and 753 cell phone interviews with cell phone users. In 95 of 100 cases, the statewide estimates will be accurate to ± 2.5%. There are other sources of variation inherent in public opinion studies, such as non-response, question wording or context effects that can introduce error or bias. For more information about the Kentucky Health Issues Poll, please visit www.interactforhealth.org/kentucky-health-issues-poll or www.healthy-ky.org.
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You may also be interested in this NKyTribune report on another part of the KHIP data: Obesity, heart disease, cancer plague us